Plot summary: Pyrotechnics expert Garfield Lynns adopts the persona Firefly and sets half of Gotham on fire to try and win back his famous ex-girlfriend.
Each Saturday and Sunday Matt Waters recaps an episode of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, building an overall ranking along the way. Plus best performances, the ever-popular Villain Watch and more!
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Notes
Episode Title: ‘Torch Song’
Original Air Date: June 13th, 1998
Directed: Curt Geda (3)
Written: Rich Fogel (2)
Firefly was planned for Batman The Animated Series, but they were forbidden from using any fire-based characters by the Fox censors. Sigh.
Batgirl sort of breaks the fourth wall by referencing Pinky and the Brain, another WB Show.
Officer Vincenzo is named after Darren Vincenzo, who served as Batman comics editor in the 1990s. Meanwhile, Howlin’ Jack is a tribute to radio personality Wolfman Jack, right down to his distinctive voice.
Recap
Bruce Wayne’s eyebrow-raisingly young girlfriend, Shannon, drags him to a concert by singing sensation Cassidy. The star rebuffs the aggressive advances of her ex-boyfriend, Garfield Lynns and gets him… fired… from his job as her pyrotechnics expert.
The gig starts, but Lynns snaps and turns the flames up to maximum, causing the audience to flee and leaving Cassidy trapped amidst the burning stage. Bruce is unable to act due to his date, but luckily Barbara was attending the same concert and makes the save as Batgirl.
Harvey Bullock and the GCPD raid Lynns’ apartment, which is absolutely covered in pictures and posters of Cassidy, but with Garfield nowhere to be seen as he’s busy in a secret workshop across town cooking up… something.
Cassidy agrees to attend a club opening despite a threatening anonymous note. Naturally, Lynns attends in a home-made costume and sets the club ablaze.
Batgirl saves Cassidy (and the rest of the patrons) for the second time but Batman fails to capture ‘Firefly’ and almost dies in the process.
Intrigued, Bruce infiltrates Cassidy’s penthouse despite all the security her manager claims will ensure her safety and asks what the connection between her and Firefly is. She fills him in on their past and attempts to seduce our hero, who naturally declines.
Barbara logs materials from Lynns’ apartment for her father (not a concern at all that the police commissioner would have his teenage daughter do this) and finds a lead on Firefly’s warehouse workshop.
While investigating the lair, Barbara inadvertently triggers an enormous explosion that levels much of the building. Babs is injured during the escape, forcing her to stay in the Batcave as Bruce heads back out to rescue Cassidy, who Firefly kidnapped during their botched investigation.
Firefly demonstrates a gel of his own creation capable of setting ANYTHING alight to a terrified Cassidy, but before he can dump a drum of it into the sewers, Batman intervenes, clad in a special fire-proof armour and wielding a cold gun.
Hero and villain take turns knocking each other on their asses, but Firefly tries and fails to flee the scene as the factory goes up in flames, leaving Bruce to carry Cassidy to safety, though we see some time later she has developed an intense fear of fire.
Best Performance
Karla DeVito was a professional singer, making her a logical casting for Cassidy, though whoever wrote the awful song she performs did her NO favours. Still, she’s fun, she’s flirty and she’s good at sounding famous and bossing around her employees. Her failed seduction of Bruce resulting in her labelling him a creep was a particular highlight. In an episode with several strong performances, hers probably stands out the most because of how much presence she had.
Tara Strong’s playful jab at Bruce at the concert was great, and she also nails both the “Hi, I’m a big fan” line, and the Pinky and the Brain reference. Mark Rolsten made for a sufficiently sinister Firefly, and basically did his job and nothing more. Tom F. Wilson’s little cameo as Howlin’ Jake was pretty solid as well.
Ranking
This was a straightforward episode, but executed incredibly well thanks to how effectively they conveyed the intensity of the four big fire scenes. You’d think going to the same well that many times would have diminishing returns, but between the animation and the audio, each one delivered surprisingly high stakes. I hadn’t actually noticed the lack of fire before now, but it made for a refreshing new challenge for Batman, as he can’t simply punch his way through a force of nature. Each escape is narrower than the last, and they allow for lots of saving the innocent but letting the villain escape moments.
The Cassidy/Lynns story was done pretty well, with the opening scene at the concert doing a lot of character work for both them and our two heroes before transitioning nicely into the ongoing threat of the episode. Creepy tech guy stalking a woman whose affections he overestimated tracks pretty well, and Firefly made a strong debut (see below.)
The touch of ending with Cassidy still traumatised was shockingly bleak for a show that may enjoy tragedy, but generally tries to end on an optimistic note. Honestly, I’m kind of mad that we won’t see her again to follow up on this clearly unfinished business.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Riddler’s Reform
- Double Talk
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- Baby-Doll
- Sins of the Father
- Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- Torch Song (NEW ENTRY)
- You Scratch My Back
- Bane
- Batgirl Returns
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- Catwalk
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Growing Pains
- Holiday Knights
- Second Chance
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Deep Freeze
- Harley’s Holiday
- Lock-Up
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- Cold Comfort
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Joker’s Millions
- Heart of Steel Part I
- Never Fear
- On Leather Wings
- Love is a Croc
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Make ‘Em Laugh
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Avatar
- The Demon’s Quest Part I
- The Mechanic
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Terror in the Sky
- P.O.V.
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- The Worry Men
- What is Reality?
- Fire From Olympus
- Night of the Ninja
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- The Lion and the Unicorn
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger, Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams In Darkness
- The Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- Time Out of Joint
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- Showdown
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
Firefly (Mark Rolston) (first appearance)
Honestly, there’s not much depth, but given what a rock solid gimmick he has, there doesn’t need to be. He’s a jilted creepo who uses his special skills to become a costumed supervillain, terrorises his ex, and almost succeeds in blowing up all of Gotham.
Between the flamethrower, fire sword, jetpack and armour, he makes for a durable, unpredictable threat to Batman, who has to roll out specialised armour (and seemingly his own cold gun!) to take him down. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing in Batman/Spider-Man/Iron Man, with the hero having to adapt to the threat of the week. As I said above, I’m annoyed this is his only substantial appearance and would have liked to have seen what else the writers could have done with him.
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- The Ventriloquist
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- The Riddler
- The Phantasm
- Baby-Doll
- Bane
- Mad Hatter
- Clayface
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Ra’s al Ghul
- Killer Croc
- Firefly (NEW ENTRY)
- Lock-Up
- Penguin
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Scarecrow
- Rupert Thorne
- Count Vertigo
- Clock King
- Nivens
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Enrique el Gancho
- Josiah Wormwood
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Queen Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Kyodai Ken
- Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
- Grant Walker
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Arkady Duvall
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
- The Terrible Trio
Plugs
Eager for more long-form coverage of Batman? Why not check out my podcast with Mike Thomas, The Tape Crusaders, which reviewed every Batman movie and delved a tiny bit into the animated series.
My other recap column, Marvel Mondays, continues coverage of Loki this week.
There Will Be Movies returns soon with Ben & Matt taking a look back at the 90s. If you can’t wait, why not check out the brand new honourable mentions episodes for the first two volumes?
The Reel World 